Reunions get better with time

July 27, 2012

It's been 35 years since the Portales High School class of 1977 graduated but after a quick reunion in Ruidoso this past weekend it's clear the personalities are the same.

I never would have guessed my class would have held four reunions by our 35th year but we wound up having a 10th, 20th, 30th and now 35th. Most classes would have hit the 20th and 30th and called it good. We're still overachieving though.

Granted, having this one on a five-year cycle instead of 10 and holding it out of town limited the number of folks that attended, but it was still great to catch up with everyone.

Out of the 15 or so classmates that came to the reunion this year, only four or five still live in Portales or Clovis. Only three male classmates showed up. Pretty good odds for a guy like me that was never that popular with the ladies.

I told my wife after we met up with the class the first night that my classmate David Augustine would have loved those odds. I explained to her that even hanging out with a ladies man hadn't helped me in high school.

David's reputation was borne out that next day when someone asked who had dated David Augustine. "Oh my gosh, four of us," came the realization. I quickly quipped that I had dated David too.

My reputation was borne out when someone commented that they didn't remember me being that outgoing. One Dale Carnegie course and years spent selling everything from newspaper ads to cars to toilet paper and I may soon be remembered as the class clown instead of the shy boy.

I think we all do pretty well as a class no matter how many of us get together or how often. Reconnecting with everyone on Facebook these days is interesting and lets you know a little of what everyone is doing but hugging them all can't be beat.

One spouse related that his class had a 10-year reunion and a fight broke out and they haven't had another reunion since. My little brother's class likes getting together so much that a bunch of them got together to have a joint 50th birthday party. My mother's class has taken to meeting weekly for dinner in Portales.

Tucumcari, where my wife graduated, has the Rattler Reunion every year. I loved going to Rattler Reunion when we lived there because I lived there long enough myself that I always saw someone I hadn't seen in a long time. She never went with me and hasn't even been on the big years when her class was hosting.

To each his own, though. I really got a kick out of Keenan trying to convince me a Ponderosa Pine bark smells like butterscotch and learning about how her work these days is running an institute that envisions the future of science. I liked being teased by Cindy for giving her a bloody nose in first grade, even though she doesn't remember it.